KT Made It: Pillowcase Dress

Now that baby girl is finally sleeping better and things are in a more "normal" routine, I am trying to make a little time for myself including working out, a little cooking/baking and a few crafts now and then. I don't anticipate that I will be blogging as much as I was in the B.C. (Before Children) era, but a few posts here and there is plenty these days!
A few weeks ago I made a pillow case dress for my little one. These are easy dresses to make for the novice sewer and for those of us with little time to cut out a complicated pattern.
There are a lot of instructions out there to make a pillowcase dress. Here are some of the ones that I found helpful:
Dress A Girl Around The World's "Best Dress Ever" Tutorial
Bumblebee Linen's Pillowcase Dress
Here a graphic that is also helpful.

I knew that I had only minutes to do each step while baby girl occupied herself here and there. She ate quite a few cheerios which I used to keep her busy while I made her dress. I used fat quarters instead of a pillowcase- two of one pattern for the dress bodice and one for the bottom panel. I bought one package of 1/2 inch ribbon for the drawstrings.

I made a pattern for the top of the dress, you can see the arm hole. I folded one polka dot fat quarter in half lengthwise and put the pattern piece along the fold. I cut the out the piece and added length to the bottom. I did the same with the second piece. This was the front and back of the dress.

I used the blue fat quarter to make a bottom panel of the dress.

Here are the four pieces of the dress. I spent quite a bit of time ironing out the folds...

Next, I sewed the sides together with the right-side facing in so that when the pieces were turned outward the right side of the fabric was facing outward and the seams were inside. I used a 1/2 inch seam allowance.

I do not have a surging machine or sewing machine foot, so I used pinking shears to trim the seams before pressing them with the iron. Then I sewed the seams in place.

To attach the bottom panel I turned the top of the dress right-side out and with the bottom panel seams facing outward line up the bottom hem of the dress and the top of the bottom panel. I sewed these together with a 1/2inch seam allowance.

After that I pulled to bottom panel so that the right side of the dress was facing out and then pressed the seams.

Next, I turned the dress inside out and then I folded the bottom panel in half with the "wrong side" facing together.

I made sure that there was about 1 inch of fabric above the seam that connected the two pieces of the dress. I folded the 1piec" hem inside creating a finished seam, which I then sewed in place.

With the dress sewn together, I then made a hem for the arm holes.

And, finally, the top casing for the ribbon. I did this by folding the top edge about 1inch and then sewing across.

I fed the ribbon through the casing of the front and back of the dress, tying the ribbon on one side of the dress.

Looking forward to more sewing projects!

KT Baked It: "Whatever I Can Find In My Kitchen To Make Cookies" Cookies

When I got home from work a few days ago, I needed to have cookies! Unfortunately we did not have any in the house at the ready. However, being a resourceful person, I was able to whip up some delicious cookies from what we had in the house.

What you need:
3/4 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup flour
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/3 cup each butterscotch, chocolate and white baking chips

In a large mixing bowl, cream softened butter with white and brown sugar.

Mix the egg and vanilla with the creamed sugar and butter.

In a separate bowel, mix the flour, graham cracker crumbs, salt and baking powder.

Using an electric mixer, slowly add the flour mixture to the creamed butter and sugar.

Add in the coconut and baking chips to finish the dough.

Now its time to bake! I used a tablespoon to scoop the dough and placed each cookie about 2" apart on a greased cookie sheet.

Bake the cookies in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes or until the sides are golden.

The cookies turned out great! This is a great basic dough to use for other additions like pieces of candy bars (snickers, peanut butter cups), M&Ms and chopped nuts too...mmmm!